


From the entry [G'KAR] in Interstellar Encyclopaedia of Political Philosophy, Galilean University of Mars Press, 2374.

by LondonKdS



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Revolutionaries, future evaluations of characters, in-universe history
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-03
Updated: 2006-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25556467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LondonKdS/pseuds/LondonKdS
Summary: Who is, and is not, recorded in history.
Relationships: G'Kar & Londo Mollari, Lyta Alexander & G'Kar
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	From the entry [G'KAR] in Interstellar Encyclopaedia of Political Philosophy, Galilean University of Mars Press, 2374.

... This mysterious period produced G's next two major works, those traditionally known as _G'Kar's Book of Sights_ and more controversially _G'Kar's Book of Liberation_. The _Book of Sights_ consists largely of a travelogue dealing with G's impressions of the people and locations encountered during his wanderings through the galaxy. While always perceptive and often amusing and thought-provoking, it remains for the most part an outsider's view of these cultures, with the inevitable tendency to surface interpretation and excessive idealisation or condemnation of their character and practices. As a result of its essentially recreational nature, it has always been regarded as deuterocanonical by G's religious followers (apart from some embarassment regarding its open allusions to G's xenosexual proclivities and casual sexual liaisons with sentient lifeforms of various species), and of largely biographical interest by academic investigators.

The _Book Of Liberation_ , however, remains G's most controversial work in terms of both content and bibliographic authenticity. It is still sometimes referred to in human circles as _G'Kar's Letters to the Byronists_ , as excerpts initially emerged in crude but mainly accurate samizdat English translations distributed among that political and paramilitary movement. The extent of G's historical involvement with **[BYRONISM]** remains debatable, but it is almost certain that he was the conduit for early Narn financial aid to the movement. Public release of various government archives, and hints dropped in surviving memoirs, have provided sufficient evidence for the vast majority of historians to accept that he did, indeed, act as a covert ideological and even military advisor to Byronist leaders, although the leaders of the Narn Religion of G'Kar still insist in public that all of this material is forged. Certain of these religious followers still hold to the claim that the entirety of the _Book of Liberation_ was written by the Byronists and ascribed to G in order to gain false prestige and hide the true identity of the author(s). This position has always been ridiculed by human historians, as the **[PSIONIC EXCEPTIONALISM]** and **[HUMAN CHAUVINISM]** , even approaching **[SPECIESISM]** , of the Byronists make it extremely unlikely that they would have falsely ascribed such a significant text to a non-human and non-psionic author. Furthermore, all pseudonymous Byronist texts use obviously false names based on historical and mythological allusions, not the names of living contemporary figures.

These debates have never obscured the significance of the _Book of Liberation_ , a detailed and practical, at times shockingly ruthless and pragmatic, description of how to violently overthrow an occupier or oppressive government with advice for everyone from the ideological leader to the street fighting irregular. The power of the work can be gauged from the extent to which it remains banned by even certain democratic governments. Its immediacy and readability can be ascribed to its plain language and G's unusual decision to adopt the ancient human philosophical genre of the **[SOCRATIC DIALOGUE]**. The book consists of a series of dialogues between G and an interlocutor "L", who appears to be conceived as a representation of the stereotypical angry and unthinking youthful revolutionary whose energy must be harnessed and directed. The followers of the Religion of G'Kar continue to find it almost impossible to reconcile the abstract optimism, benevolence and self-sacrifice expressed in _The Book of G'Kar_ with the existence of this book. However, a less emotional examination finds clear correspondences between the _Book of Liberation_ and all G's work. _The Book Of G'Kar_ declares dialogue, in its broadest sense, to be the most important activity of sentient beings. The assumptions which many readers bring to the work often causes them to fail to notice the several points at which G clearly argues that warfare is itself a form of dialogue, albeit to be used only in the most extreme conditions. The sophistication and wisdom of G's genuine position can be seen in the following key passage from the _Book of Liberation_ , which emotionally rises above the cool tones of the rest of the work to an extent which has led many to suspect that it alludes to some specific personal experience.

_The single greatest victory one can achieve in the struggle against oppression, and an objective that must always be kept in mind in any action that will come to the attention of the general public, is to convince the oppressor of his own illegitimacy. Wanton killing and maiming of oppressors and collaborators is not wrong in that it is undeserved, but in that it confirms their belief that they are not the aggressors. An individual member of the oppressive class hardly ever sees himself as an oppressor or a tyrant. Instead he sees himself as a guide, a teacher, a stern parent, even as a friend or lover. Naive and shallow understandings of the brotherhood of all peoples deny the existence of sibling rivalry, and lead the oppressor who does not truly recognise his privilege to view the rebel, not himself, as the offender against decency. True dialogue can only be achieved when he knows in his heart and bones that he is your enemy, and it is only through cold and clear-eyed bargaining, in which all the weapons are openly carried, that one can lay the foundations of true reconciliation, just settlement and even fraternity._


End file.
